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Marc2b -> RE: Why do you think Shakespear was so spot on with everything? (2/14/2012 11:35:15 AM)
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Didn't like reading Shakespear. The jokes are a bit old, and the language a bit too retro for my taste. [8D]
Nobody really likes reading Shakespeare and unfortunately too many high school students are forced to read him and because they are bored and don't really understand the language, they form negative opinions that aren't really justified. Shakespeare wasn't meant to be read, it was meant to be watched. You do have to put a bit of effort into understanding the retro language but once you do, and then "watch" a Shakespeare play (movies don't quite cut it although there are some good ones), it opens up to you. That it when you will realize that your high school english teacher was an idiot who didn't know what she was doing and that Shakespeare really was a genius.
quote:
Me thinkith that ith selectith withith the quoteith.
Try as I might, I am unable to translate this.
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To be hinest, it's a difficult one to call because on the one hand it is fair to say the hatred is in keeping with the era but at the same time its still a strongly negative portrayal other than a line here or there. Its more probable that those quite rare sympathetic sounding lines in the story are down to his excellence as an observant writer in being able to speak for Shylock's character, and the portrayal of Shylock couldn't contrast more with Shakespear's treatment of "The Moor" in Othello.
My point exactly. An honest apprasial of Shakespeare's works cannot deny the anti-semetism (or sexism) that appears (almost unconsciously) in his works. People who love Shakespeare but are uncomfortable with the anti-semitism or sexism will often latch on to a particular passage or two to "prove" that Shakespeare was not anti-semitic or sexist. I believe they err when they do this. Shakespeare, I contend, simply possesed the remarkable ability to step outside his own perspective and view the world for the perspective of others. I suppose we could credit Shakespeare with helping to pave to way to a more tolerant society, but we must still do so with the limitations of the man and his era firmly in mind.
Othello didn't fair to well in the end but here too Shakespeare is presents us with a mixed bag. Many in Venice genuinely admire Othello ("If fortitude is a place, it is best know to him.") but racism still abounds ("Even now an old black ram is topping your white ewe.").
Shakespeare's other well known Moor, Aaron in Titus Adronicus, more resembles Shylock (although many scholars consider him a deliberate parody of Barabas in Marlowe's The Jew of Malta). He is despised by most of those around him. At one point his affair with Tamora (the queen of the Goths) is exposed when she gives birth to a baby that is obviously his. A nurse comes to give him this "terrible" news:
"A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue:
Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad
Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime:
The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point."
To which Aaron responds:
"'Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue?"
A while later, Arron proudly declares:
Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies;
There to dispose this treasure in mine arms,
And secretly to greet the empress' friends.
Come on, you thick lipp'd slave, I'll bear you hence;
For it is you that puts us to our shifts:
I'll make you feed on berries and on roots,
And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat,
And cabin in a cave, and bring you up
To be a warrior, and command a camp.
Just as a side note: Titus Adronicus also contains one of my favorite jokes in Shakespeare. When the queen's two grown son's confront Aaron about what he has done, one of them declares:
"Villan! Thou hast undone our mother!"
To which Aaron replies:
"Villian, I have done thy mother." [:D]
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